Refurbished Vinyl Decal Chair
By: Tanya Alley

One of my favourite things to do is take something old and make it new again. Refurbishing old finds is a great way to keep your craft costs down while creating custom art, furniture, decor or crafts. A friend of mine bought this little chair for her granddaughter and asked if I could do something with it. It was originally (when she got it) red but she wanted something soft and feminine to match her granddaughter’s bedroom. I was happy to help. I painted it this beautiful shade of purple and applied vinyl die cuts and now she has a great custom chair.

Here’s how I did it.

Supplies used:

• Peppermint Creative Commercial Vectors – Butterflies
• Silhouette Cameo
• White Vinyl
• Purple Spray paint
• Sand paper
• Finish Spray – sealer

Step 1: First I sanded the chair to remove all inconsistencies.

Step 2: After sanding, I wiped the chair an old rag to remove the dust from sanding.

Step 3: The chair is ready to spray paint.

Step 4: While waiting on paint to dry. I started on making the vinyl butterflies and the name “Abbi” by using my Silhouette Studio program with my Silhouette Cameo. First I imported the butterfly vector into Silhouette  studio. Choose the SVG file if you have the Designer Edition software, otherwise use the trace function using the JPG file format as shown below. Drag to the desired size.

Step 5: Next step is to Select trace area, highlight the whole butterfly and then trace outer edge.

Step 6: Now I picked the cut style button. It is the pair of scissors at the top right. Next,  I made sure the cute edge is selected on the right hand of the screen. You will see a red outline around the image. This is how you know this is what will be cut.

Step 7: Now we are ready to cut. Pick the pencil button at the top of the screen. The cut settings will pop up. I made sure that I had the appropriate media picked and that I have the mat selected. Now you are ready to cut.

Step 8: Load mat and cut.

Step 9: After the vinyl is cut, it’s time to remove the excess vinyl and “weed” out the small pieces.

You will do the same for the name as you do for the butterfly.

Step 10: Now it’s time to add the transfer tape. Make sure to smooth out with a scraper. You can use a old credit card if you don’t have a scraper.

Step 11: Transfer to chair. Smooth out with scraper and carefully remove the transfer tape.

Step 12: Repeat the steps 4-11 for the name that is on the back of the chair.

Final Step: Spray chair with a coat or two of  sealer.  I used Rust-O-Leum American Accents. I made sure that the coat was completely dry before applying another coat.

Completed project:

I know this sounds like a lot of steps, but it really doesn’t take that long.  My biggest issue was trying to spray paint in the wind.  My friends granddaughter absolutely loved this chair.  She takes it with her everywhere she goes. I hope this inspires you to refurbish something and make it beautiful!

Happy Crafting,
Tanya

Hybrid World’s Best Mother Broach
By: Pixelista

Mother’s are the keepers of lost teeth, noodle necklaces, prom corsages and faded year books. They comfort us when we scrape our knees, have our first heart break and share their stories from days gone by.  Their embrace is enough to wash away a bad dream and to know that they will love us no matter what. They give so much, and ask for nothing in return. Show gratitude and appreciation for your mother by means of a beautiful prize ribbon style broach for her to wear on Mother’s Day.

I created my broach using Peppermint Creative’s Uniquely You Kit and matching Mother Add-on , this project turned out to be a stunning piece, truly fit for a Queen.

Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

• Printed papers from the Uniquely You kit 
• Mom Add-On for Uniquely You Kit
• Sewing machine and coordinating threads **Optional
• Hot glue gun
• Tacky Glue
• Foam adhesive squares (assorted sizes)
• Paper scorer (highly recommended time saver!)
• Decorative edge paper punch
• Miscellaneous Rhinestones, buttons etc.
• Scissors
• Silhouette Cameo (for cutting your files out)** Optional
• Broach pin
• Adhesive Rhinestones, buttons etc.
• 1 and 3 inch circle punch (for accordion flower backs)
• Double sided permanent adhesive tape (sookwang or other)

Project Assembly:

There’s no sense reinventing the wheel. Miss Mint has a fantastic tutorial on how to make the accordion style paper flowers. Follow along with her to make an assortment of 5 different sized pinwheels. The largest being for your base of the broach, with another smaller one layered on top. The final 3 (or more as you see fit) are to cluster as accents on top.

NOTE: Prior to connecting your paper strips, for pleating you will need to punch the edges if you choose to use the decorative punch for added visual interest. 

Okay, so your flowers are done and look sensational! You (if you’re anything like me) are now covered in glue! So clean your hands and let’s move on.

Make a selection of digital embellies to use on the broach (foliage, flowers, butter fly, words etc.) don’t forget to pick a bunch to be your “ribbon tails’, print and cut them out (If you have a Silhouette Machine…USE IT!!! IT will be your best friend!) I had to cut out my pieces individually with scissors.

Take your assorted strips to be used as tails and snip the ends in varying ways, layer them to get an idea as to how you’d like them to look when they are all stuck together.  

Stitch randomly around the edges with the coordinated thread you picked out.

Using your double sided tape, start layering your ribbon tails to create the ribbon cluster for the bottom of the broach.

 Attach the finished ribbon cluster to the BACK of the base pinwheel flower using tacky glue.  Apply the glue to the RIGHT side of the cluster  

Then flip it over and centre as needed, press and hold to get adhesion. Let this dry briefly so it won’t shift. 

Now, you can start the layering of your other pinwheels and elements to build the face of the broach. Using foam adhesive squares and tacky glue attach the top pinwheel to the largest pinwheel base. Again, hold firmly to get adhesion.

Play around with your other elements to determine how they will be positioned prior to being permanently tacked in place.

Layer and attach your remaining embellishments, die cut flowers, butterflies (don’t forget to bend it’s wings so it looks like it’s ready to take flight) with tacky glue and adhesive squares as needed.

Position your “Mother” die cut and attach with glue or foam squares and bling it out with a little rhinestone and button action. 

 Let it dry completely! 

A good couple of hours at least, before flipping it over to attach the broach closure pin on the back side.  Add some hot glue in the appropriate spot, and then push in the pin so that the glue comes up through the holes in the closure.

All done, now go give your beautiful hand crafted ribbon to Mom and get her to wear it proudly (like she wouldn’t!) on Mother’s Day! 

Happy Crafting!
Pixelista